Curious and curiouser....

The announcement that Peter Varney is to step down at the end of the season comes on the back of several other un-Charlton-like decisions. The ubiquitous "personal reasons" are quoted which invariably means they have agreed not to say why. I sincerely hope it's not family reasons and that he's not got a family illness or that he is feeling the pressure of his job. Assuming this is not the case I can only think he has been made an offer he can't refuse by a bigger club. I certainly hope so, because he deserves to leave Charlton on a high and no-one should begrudge him an opportunity for a bigger challenge and career progression.

Peter Varney has overseen the most successful ten years in Charlton's history since the War, if not ever. His close day-to-day management of the business and shrewd commercial advice has enabled the Board to take the decisions necessary to get us promoted twice, establish ourselves as a Premier League club and, almost as importantly, to re-develop the Valley which will be his biggest legacy. He is a real Charlton fan and a frequent traveller with the fans to away games. I know Ian Cartwright fairly well and he had enormous respect for Varney all the while he worked for him.

In the last ten years my only real criticisms about the Club have been about our increasing tendency to appeal against almost every decision that has gone against us. There was a clear change of policy in recent years and I don't know how much of that was down to Peter Varney. You have to be prepared to stand and fight on occasions but we seemed to lose most of the cases we made and I think we got a reputation for being cry-babies. I know mates who follow West Ham and Millwall who were always quick to complain that "that Varney bloke's been on whinging again." It got a bit hard to defend in the end when some of the complaints looked weak from the outset.

Nonetheless, we may well miss Mr Varney more than we will ever know and certainly more than the vast majority of the players who have pulled on the red shirt over the last ten years. His story would make a good read and possibly a very good read depending on what he might have to tell us, although I suspect Peter might be too honourable and professional for any of that! Eiither way, I wish him well for the future.